


Hand in unlovable hand

by hereforthehurts (orphan_account)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff, Fluff In The End, High School AU, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, tyzula - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:47:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27792514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/hereforthehurts
Summary: Azula is pissed off and bed-ridden for at least another three weeks. Ty Lee tries to help. And maybe, Azula finally realizes that being cuddled in bed isn't so bad after all.
Relationships: Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 72





	Hand in unlovable hand

**Author's Note:**

> For @wombatking on tumblr!

“This is _fucking_ pathetic—”  
  
“It’s not.”  
  
“It is, it _is—_ ”  
  
“ _Azula_.” Ty lee’s unusual stern voice shuts her up almost immediately. “Hey, it’s not, okay?”  
  
She just scoffs. “Being bedridden and not being able to do anything feels pretty pathetic to me.”  
  
“It’s not.” Ty lee repeats, softer this time, setting the mug of tea on the nightstand and began circling around her bed. “Are you good? Comfortable? Do you—”  
  
“You can stop asking me that.”  
  
The other girl frowns. “Why? I was just making sure you were okay—”  
  
“Do I _look_ like I’m okay?” Azula couldn’t help but exclaim it, louder than she should have. There was so much unexplainable anger inside her, it felt like she was going to explode. “I’m not! And there’s nothing you can do about it, so why don’t you just _leave_ _me_ —”  
  
“Azula, I was just trying to help—”  
  
“Well, there’s absolutely nothing you can do to help me in this situation, so maybe you should just _leave_.”  
  
Ty lee stares at her for a moment, looking so startled and upset, it almost made Azula regret what she said. _Almost_. “Fine.” She says bitterly, turning around to walk out the door. “I’ll go.”  
  
The door clicks closed behind her, and then she was all alone again, in the room, successfully pushed away the few people that cared about her for the millionth time in her life.  
  
_Pathetic,_ her father’s voice says in her mind. _Depending on others? Pathetic. You can’t even make them **stay.**_  
  
_Holy shit, shut up!_ Azula wanted to break her head open if it means that it’ll stop the voices, but she couldn’t even reach for the baseball bat resting on corner of the room. She was agitated, angry, and she doesn’t know _why_. Usually, she’d go off on a run and come back feeling a bit better when she starts to feel like this, but this time she couldn’t—not when her leg got broken due to a _stupid_ lacrosse accident she caused herself. Everything was her fault, and she has no one else to blame but herself.  
  
Maybe she should just go to sleep and never wake up again.  
  
Azula sighs harshly, closing her eyes, trying desperately to drift off to sleep.  
  
_Yeah. Maybe she really should.  
  
_  
  


* * *

  
  
  
When she wakes up again, something was… wrong.  
  
Azula couldn’t tell what it is at first—she didn’t even know how long she had slept, but when she finally registered her surroundings, her instincts told her something was _wrong._  
  
And then it hit her.  
  
The place was… silent. Sure, it was only her and Ty Lee that lives in it, but it was usually filled with the cheerful girl’s constant humming and the TV’s low noise in the background (Ty Lee never turns it off). Though it was usually quiet, it was never silent—Azula had never liked silence anyway. Silence was too familiar to her, too close to reminding her on the days her mother first left.  
  
Her eyes widen at that.  
  
_Fuck.  
  
Fuck! _Ty Lee must have left—that’s the only explanation there is. There’s no TV noises, no humming sounds, nothing—the house was deathly silent, exactly like the days her mother have left her. Did Ty Lee really left her? Why would she—  
  
Oh.  
  
Of course Ty Lee left. _Of course_ she did—after all, it was her who told her to, right? _Right?_ Her and the way she couldn’t stop pushing away everyone from her, starting from her mother then her brother then her friends and then Ty Lee— _  
_  
_Pathetic,_ her father’s voice fills her mind once again, echoing like he was all around her. _Pathetic. Fucking pathetic, Azula—  
  
_“ _No!_ ” She screams, forcing herself to move out of bed even though her broken foot starts throbbing like crazy due to the sudden movement. Azula couldn’t care less, though—she needed to find Ty Lee now and prevent her from leaving like she should’ve done with her mother. She couldn’t let that happen, not again, _not again,_ why couldn’t she just stand up and _move—  
  
_“Azula!”  
  
A pair of arms wrapped around her body and prevents her from falling into the ground and wounding herself even more. “Azula, hey, hey, what’s—”  
  
“Ty Lee,” Azula gasps, trying to get her breathing under control. She didn’t realize that she had been struggling to breathe until Ty Lee had held her, grounded her. “You—you’re—”  
  
“Hey. Hey, come on. It’s okay. It’s okay.” Ty Lee tells her, dropping both of them to the floor before pressing her onto the wall, squeezing her shoulders gently. “I’m here, Azula. I’m here. Breathe, okay?”  
  
She nods, resting her head against the wall and tried to relax, try to make it stop. Her heart felt like it was going to burst out of her chest.  
  
“It’s okay,” Ty Lee repeats over and over again. “It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s a panic attack, remember what I told you? Yeah. It’s okay.” She ran her hand along her arm, trying to soothe her. “Do you… do you know what caused it? Did you wake up from a nightmare, or…?”  
  
Azula shook her head once again. She wanted to speak but she couldn’t—it felt like her words was stuck in her throat. _I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Ty Lee, please don’t leave me. I’m sorry.  
  
_“No? Did it just happen like that?”  
  
“No, I—I‘m sorry,” Azula managed to say between her struggling breaths. “I thought you—”  
  
“You thought I what?” Ty Lee asks, softer this time. “Azula, _hey_ , what’s going on?”  
  
“I thought you were—I thought you left. I thought you left and you’d—” a sob tears through her chest and Ty Lee wraps her arms around her, guiding her into her shoulder.  
  
“Hey, no, no. It’s okay. I would never leave you, Azula.” The other girl assures softly, hands around her. “I was angry for a while, I guess, but I’d never leave you just like that. Of course not.”  
  
Azula sobs into her chest for a while, feeling relief and guilt wash over her at the same time. She was so scared. _So fucking scared._ She doesn’t know what she would do if Ty Lee had left her too, just like everyone else did.  
  
“Hey. Let’s get you back to bed, okay?” Ty Lee says, helping her up carefully. “Does your broken foot hurt? Do we need to—”  
  
“I’m fine,” she cuts her off. “I—it’s okay. It’s fine.”  
  
“You don’t do that again, okay?” The other girl tells her, setting her on her bed. “You need time to heal, Azula. You can’t rush these things.” She checks on the mug of tea on the nightstand, still full and untouched. “I’m going to go and heat this up for you—”  
  
“No,” Azula grabs her arm before she could leave, not looking at her in the eyes. “Stay.”  
  
Ty Lee sighs softly. “Here? On the bed?”  
  
Azula nodded. “Please.”  
  
“Okay.” She sets the glass back on the table and gets into the bed with her, careful not to disturb her broken foot. “Aw, who knew the scary, mean Azula would one day ask me to get in bed with her?”  
  
Azula tried her best not to smile at that. “Fuck you.”  
  
Ty Lee just laughs, wrapping her arms over her and rests her head over Azula’s shoulder, making her the big spoon in the bed. “Is this okay?”  
  
She nods as a confirmation. She’d never admit that she liked being spooned in bed, but she has to admit that it _is_ nice, at least. “I… I suppose I _am_ mean. A lot of times. I’m—sorry.” Azula hates on how she still chokes on the word “sorry” sometimes, like she’s still trying to get used to it. “I’m sorry, Ty Lee.”  
  
The girl smiles. “I accept your apology. Thank you.”  
  
Azula nods. “Okay.”  
  
They laid there for a while, unsure of what to do. Azula still felt the guilt settling in her chest like a heavy brick, and she doesn’t know how to get rid of it. _You’re lucky she didn’t leave you this time. Next time, though… there might not be a next time.  
  
_Ty Lee breaks the silence for her. “So… are you going to talk about it?”  
  
“About what?”  
  
“About what happened.”  
  
“I guess I _am_ just always so _… angry_ and agitated and I don’t know _why_.” She starts hoping that it was good enough of an explanation. “The sports I do, they help me get rid of it for a certain amount of time, but it never really _leaves_ me, the anger. And now that I’m stuck in bed all sad and pathetic like this, I guess it… builds up inside of me, and I don’t know how to get rid of it.” Azula confesses, a bit glad that they both couldn’t see each other’s face at the moment.  
  
“Well, I don’t blame you. You _do_ have a lot of reasons to be angry,” Ty Lee just shrugs.  
  
“Yes, but… I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. I’m… sorry.”  
  
Ty Lee responds by hugging her closer, tighter. It felt nice, being in someone else’s arms. She felt protected. Safe. Like nothing else could ever hurt her in this world as long as she was in her girlfriend’s arms.  
  
“Maybe… it’s time to stop running away from it, your anger, you know,” Ty Lee tells her, breaking the silence, “literally.”  
  
Azula couldn’t help but let out a genuine laugh at that. “Really?”  
  
“Yeah.” Ty Lee says. “I mean, you never really talk it out to anyone. Maybe you should do that.”  
  
“But I just did, talk about it.” Azula frowns. “To you.”  
  
“No, I meant _why_ you’re angry. It’s good, you know, talking things out. It helps.”  
  
“I… I don’t know how to do that.”  
  
“That’s okay, too,” Ty Lee smiles, tucking a stray hair from her forehead behind her ear gently. “I’ll wait for you. Whenever you’re ready. I’m here, and I’ll be here, always.”  
  
“And you think I’ll stop being so angry and mean when I do?”  
  
Ty Lee laughs. “Oh, I hope not. Mean Azula _kind_ _of_ turns me on sometimes.”  
  
Azula didn’t expect that answer. She gapes at her for a long while before saying, “I’m breaking up with you. Get out.”  
  
It felt so surreal for her, to be giggling in bed about something _so stupid_ with her girlfriend. To be held, to be loved by someone that’s so patient and understanding. A few years ago, she’d never think that this would ever happen in her life. She had thought that she was going to be a pathetic, unlovable monster forever.  
  
Until Ty Lee comes along. Kind, patient, _stunning_ Ty Lee.  
  
The expression “happy” would be an understatement.  
  
_  
_

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr blog](https://hereforthehurts.tumblr.com/)


End file.
